More dishonesty from lottery racket

Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 10:16 p.m.

To The Editor: I found it disappointing that the only argument that lottery officials could come up with against the bill that would change the name of the North Carolina Education Lottery to the N.C. State Lottery is that it would cost “between $3 and $4 million” to “to change all of its printed material, billboards and signs.”

It is doubly disappointing because lottery officials knew that Rep. David Guice and the bill’s other co-sponsors had already amended it to read that “new materials, publications and advertising shall bear the new name” only after stocks of current materials, billboard ads, tickets, etc. … had been exhausted.

The lottery bosses have only one interest and that is to protect the illusion of the “education” benefits of this state-sponsored gambling racket even now that Gov. Perdue has raided $88 million from the “Education Lottery” fund, a bait-and-switch that lottery opponents predicted when it passed amid guarantees that the revenue would pay for education.

Please call Gov. Perdue at (919) 733-4240 to ask her to endorse the Lottery Name Change Bill. A bit of “truth in advertising” is the first step to ending this con game that preys upon those who can least afford it.

<p>To The Editor: I found it disappointing that the only argument that lottery officials could come up with against the bill that would change the name of the North Carolina Education Lottery to the N.C. State Lottery is that it would cost between $3 and $4 million to to change all of its printed material, billboards and signs.</p><p>It is doubly disappointing because lottery officials knew that Rep. David Guice and the bill’s other co-sponsors had already amended it to read that new materials, publications and advertising shall bear the new name only after stocks of current materials, billboard ads, tickets, etc. had been exhausted.</p><p>The lottery bosses have only one interest and that is to protect the illusion of the education benefits of this state-sponsored gambling racket even now that Gov. Perdue has raided $88 million from the Education Lottery fund, a bait-and-switch that lottery opponents predicted when it passed amid guarantees that the revenue would pay for education.</p><p>Please call Gov. Perdue at (919) 733-4240 to ask her to endorse the Lottery Name Change Bill. A bit of truth in advertising is the first step to ending this con game that preys upon those who can least afford it.</p><p>Robert Danos</p><p>Hendersonville</p><p>Chairman, </p><p>Henderson County GOP</p>